As early as the Kingdom of Tungning (1661-1683), a Confucian temple and a school had been built in Gueiren. They attracted scholars to settle down in Gueiren and teach there, thus giving rise to education at the place at a very early time.
According to Chung Kuan, "Growing trees is a decade's plan; educating people is a lifelong enterprise" (On the cultivation of political power, Guanzi).Today, elementary and high schools in the district continue this tradition to prepare talents for the country. In addition to academics and character education, we pay equal attention to hometown interests, esthetics and physical education, in order to teach students to love their hometown and country and balance academics and sports at the same time.
In Gueiren District, there are schools of different levels and different disciplines. In addition to the National Hsin-Feng Senior High School, there are the Chang Jung Christian University, the Aeronautics and Astronautics Laboratory of National Cheng Kung University, and the College of Photonics of the National Chiao Tung University, making the district the central educational area in Tainan. Apart from education, the district library and the Tainan Cultural Center Gueiren has launch cooperative events with schools of all levels to promote various cultural and art activities to create a cultural and educational environment enjoyed by the students and the general public.
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| Six elementary schools and two junior high schools educate people in Gueiren. |
In Gueiren the population is about 66,000 people. There are six elementary schools, including Gueiren, Guinan, Wenhua and Hongwacuo elementary schools in the district center; Baosi Elementary School in Baoxi area north of the district; and Datan Elementary School for students from the Datan and Wudong Villages south of the district.
Some of them were established during the Japanese colonization period and some only recently. Schools with a longer history have taller and older trees and humbler school buildings, making the campus look more vintage and academic, and every bit and piece will surely recall for the alumni their familiar olden days. Schools built recently are more modern by nature, with the architecture and space designed for esthetics purposes. Each has novel and unique features to create a comfortable and elegant teaching environment for students to enjoy learning in school. Either old or new schools are beautiful on their own and every child must love his alma mater. Teachers are seriously at work and devote their time to teaching, like loving gardeners. No matter where the garden is or where a seed is sown, they are well taken care of.
Gueiren Junior High School is the only junior high school in the district. As the school has many students, it was a big school in the Tainan County. As most elementary school students in the district go to this junior high school, most citizens in the district are alumni. This also promotes friendship among the citizens in the district and enables the spirit of Gueiren Junior High School to be passed on and on and its influence spread far and wide.
Shalun Junior High School was established after the THSR began service. It is expected that the school will fulfill local education demands after people migrate to the neighborhood. In addition, this new junior high school can relieve the pressure for Gueiren Junior High School from having too many students. Although Shalun Junior High School is still a small high school, as the THSR special zone continues to develop, it is expected that the school will have 60-70 classes. To encourage students to study hard and to promote academics in the district, Gueiren Township Office (now Gueiren District Office) has organized a commendation ceremony in 2008. At the ceremony, former township chief and current city councilperson Chen Te-qing presented scholarships and certificates to recognize Gueiren students who have successfully fulfilled the entry requirements of their first-choice government senior high schools in the basic competence test. By organizing the commendation, we hope to encourage Gueiren students to study hard and that more students will receive the award in the future to enhance the academic performance of the district.
Cultivating Multiple Competencies of Students and Achieving Distinguished School Characteristics
In addition to the academic competence of students, elementary and high schools in the district actively promote reading for students to cultivate their intelligence; enforce hometown education for students to understand better their hometown; carry forward folk arts to ensure that they will not disappear; and emphasize esthetics and physical education to develop school-based characteristics and equip students with different competencies. The foci are as follows:
Encouraging reading to promote academic development
To develop the reading habit of children and thereby improve their linguistic competence and performance, schools aggressively create a reading environment. Apart from the school library, each class has its own reading corner for students to access good books at any time. Schools also set up a reading site on the school website to recommend good books and share the book report of each class.
Loving Gueiren
Getting closer to the hometown is the only way to make people love their home and their town. Therefore, schools plan many outdoor activities for students to walk through Gueiren and understand the town they live in. Schools also create hometown webpages, organize hometown exploration competitions and cultivate little tour guides to administer hometown education more effectively and ensure students will never forget their hometown.
Carrying forward tradition and passing on the folk arts
To develop school characteristics and thereby preserve tradition and culture, schools have been promoting folk arts in recent years, such as the Sung Jiang Battle Array and Tiaogu Array relating to temple beliefs. Schools successfully operating folk art troupes provide performance opportunities for the students and enable them to be exposed to different life experiences and broaden their horizons.
Discovering potential and balancing esthetics and physical education
Apart from academics, cultivating the interest and talent of students must not be overlooked. In Gueiren, therefore, schools emphasize the balance of esthetics and physical education to equip students with art appreciation ability and physical health. In addition, by establishing various student clubs, they enable students to develop a second specialty or special talent based on their interest and potential. The effort of each school is rewarded, as witnessed by their excellent performance in baseball, soccer, table tennis, track and field, music, dance and painting competitions.
With the concerted effort of elementary and high schools in the district to provide students with a solid foundation, we believe that students from Gueiren will be incomparable and play important roles in society.
Enriching Local Education Resources from Hsin-Feng Senior High School and Chang Jung Christian University
National Hsin-Feng Senior High School is the only national senior high school in five districts (Gueiren, Rende, Guanmiao, Longqi, and Yongkang) in the Xinfeng region. It makes up for the missing piece in education for Gueiren by extending and accomplishing the secondary education in the district. Tainan County Hsin-Feng Primary Agriculture School is the precursor of the Tainan County Hsin-Feng Agriculture Vocational School. It was established by locals to cultivate the local youth and become the cradle of agricultural professionals. After nine-year compulsory education was implemented, the school was approved to be re-structured as the National Hsin-Feng Senior High School. To deal with the current educational trend, the school is developing to become a comprehensive high school. In addition to the general high school curriculum, students can select professional programs such as information science, business and applied foreign languages to create more opportunities for their future. Located near Gueiren Elementary School and Gueiren Junior High School, the National Hsin-Feng Senior High School forms a school district with them to promote local development.
The Chang Jung Christian University is an educational establishment founded by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Since the school was established in 1993, it has brought significant influence to Gueiren District. As the school expands and the number of students increases, business in the nearby areas, such as Datan and Wudong, begins to thrive to change the local industrial structure and style. The school provides Gueiren with higher education resources. At present, the school has 17 departments and students often exchange with Datan Elementary School. This teaching and learning interaction realizes learning from teaching. The school has also launched post-graduate programs progressively. The part-time section of each department and two-year technical school section provide channels for further education for principals and teachers of local schools, the public and the working people.
Center for Science and Technology Development with NCKU-AAL and NCTU-COP
The Aeronautics and Astronautics Laboratory (AAL) of the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) is located in Liujia Village, and its huge saucer-shaped antenna is a landmark in Gueiren. The AAL gathers NCKU human resources to implement various types of fundamental research and talent cultivation to develop technologies required by the industry. As an integrated research center, the AAL has well-planned laboratories for experiments on aerodynamics and fluid mechanics, combustion and propulsion, structure and materials, and navigation and control. It provides a perfect research environment for those interested in aeronautics and astronautics technologies and assists in implementing various research projects to cultivate aeronautic and astronautic talents for Taiwan. In addition, three fighters are displayed in the experimental site for the public to explore. Apart from being a venue for leisure, it is a place for education.
The Tainan Campus of the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) is located in Shalun Village, adjacent to the THSR Tainan Station. When NCTU looked for a site for the Tainan campus, the former Tainan County Government actively discussed this with the school. By subsidizing the school and expropriating land from the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, the county government successfully convinced the school to build its Tainan Campus in Gueiren. NCTU closely planned its Tainan Campus with the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and established Asia’s first College of Photonics (COP). The college official recruited students this September and is expected to enroll150 master’s students and 75 PhDs each year for high-tech industries to create economic efficiency amounting to at least NT$6 billion a year. The NCTU Tainan Campus even became the first block realized under the “THSR Academic Research Village” to lead the actualization of the other part of the project to enhance the development of Gueiren and turn the district into a new urban center of Tainan City.
Dual Hub for Culture and Arts: Library and Tainan Cultural Center, Gueirren
The Gueiren Library has a collection of nearly 40,000 books. Through the “Library Link” program, it can connect with 37 district libraries in Tainan City for citizens to find and access the required information with great ease. With the “Library Link”, citizens can locate information from the huge library containing over 55,000 books from all city libraries. With such convenient service, book lovers can enjoy their voyage of reading. In terms of hardware design, a comfortable and well-lighted environment is emphasized for the citizens to enjoy reading in the library. For example, through the large French window on the first and second floors, citizens can see the sports grounds of Gueiren Elementary School where the glittering sunshine and laughter and purity of children are within sight to add to the pleasure of reading. Also, the notice board at the entrance of the library displays information on cultural and art activities. The library also provides classroom and audiovisual room rental service and organizes various activities. It is an ideal place for the public to further study and enjoy their leisure time.